Chain



Aug., 4, 14936. V, A KJ/ER 2,049,84l

` CHAIN Filed Dec. l2, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet l l I /f A2 w/ (al WM M,

Y Patented Aug. v4 1936 Appucauminecember 12, 1932, seriaiNo. 646,937 In Denmark January 12, 1932 6 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved construction of driving chain of the kind in which the links consist of plates connected together by pins and bushes, and the object of the invention is to provide a chain which is particularly durable and capable of' withstanding heavy wear and which is adaptable for the transmission of power in engine power plants.

The construction of satisfactory chains of this 10 kind is aggravated in particular by the diiiiculty of avoiding high surface pressures between the different parts of the chain, especially at those parts where there is a sliding movement as well aS pressure.

l5 The chain of the present invention is made in such a way that the pressure on the sliding sur,- faces is spread over as large Aa surface as possible, and at the same time care is taken that the particular surfaces are effectively lubricated.

According to theinvention one or both of the cooperating surfaces of the pin and bush in the finally assembled chain `have sch a shape that the tension on the chain between successive links is transmitted from the bush to the pin y with,v a surface pressure distributed uniformly or .30 the bush or both surfaces have the form of con- Vex curves in the finally assembled chain, thev term convex curves" being understood hereinto include not only uniformly bent curves, but also curves composed *wholly orv in part of short straight lines. As will hereinafter appear, the conditions are such that in order to attain entirely uniform distribution of the pressure, generatrices would have tobe used in the form of uniformly bent curves, while in practice and for 40 manufacturing reasons generatrices are preferably used which are composed of short straight lines, in which manner an approximately uniform distribution of the surface pressure can be obtained. 45 In carrying out the invention the middle part of the inner surface of the bush, or alternatively the outer surface of the'pln may consist of a cylindrical surface, while each of the ends may' be formed from one or more conical surfaces or 50 two or more semi-cylindrical surfaces, the axes of which are at a slight angle to both sides of the axis of the middie cylindrical portion, the,

said axes lying in a plane which coincides or ap= l proximately coincides with the plane of the chain 55 links. The latter construction can be produced (Cl. 74--251)l by holding the cutting tool at an angle to one or the other side of the axis of the middle portion. The said construction is possible because the angle between the chain links on the chain wheels' 'is itself so small that it is of nc consequence 6 in this connection.v

The bushes are preferably mounted on hollow pins and the diameters are made so large that the bushesl can be made of brass or like bearing metal without the permissible surface pressures l0 for such metal being exceeded. The use of brass has the advantage that the chain car` be more Acheaply manufactured owing to the greater ease g of working brass. A v

The hollow pins may furthermore be provided 15 with transverse bore holes for supplying lubri eatingI oil from the interior. The lubricating oil is supplied through` one or more injection nozzles, which are fitted opposite the spaces between the teeth of one or more of ythe chain wheels and 20 which rotate with the wheel. The lubricating oil is then forced out of the hollow interior of the pin by the-centrifugal force through the transverse bore holes to the outer surface of the pin bearing against the inner surface of the bush'. 25

Owing'to the uniform distribution of the surface pressure, the invention has the advantagethat the danger' of friction between bush and pin is greatly reduced. This advantage is still further increased by thefact that effective oiling of the bearing surfaces between the bush and pin is attained.- This oiling is particularly good, because the dimensionslof the bush are not larger than would allow the bush to yield resiliently on the chain links passing from the tensioned to the slack chainl part and vice-versa, so that it exerts a pumping action on the lubricating oil between the bushand pin.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings whereon Figs. 1-4 are a few diagrams for explaining more clearly the fundamental feature of the inporting surfaceB. I'hev beam Ai is loaded at each end with aforce P at right angles to the ,supporting surfaces.' There is thus asurface pressure on-the supporting surface and the size and distribution of this pressure over the supporting surface is` indicated by the curve Pi in Fig. 2. The surface pressure is greatest atv the ends and drops rapidly' towards the middle.

In Fig. 3 a beam is illustrated which is loaded in the same way as in Fig. 1; its underside however is made with a slight curve K, so that the beam vwhen unladen -rests only on a small part of the surface midway between the ends. By loading it with the two forces P, thebeam AAz on account of its elasticity is caused to rest against the supporting surface in such a manner f A freely rotatable roller l is fitted on the bush 4.

that the distribution vof pressure thereon is more uniform as indicated by the curve P2 in Fig. 4,

where the largest ordinate is considerably smaller than the largest ordinate of the curve Pi.

Instead of constructing the underside ofthe beam as a convex curve, a corresponding result could be obtained with a beam as A1 of Fig. 1 if the supporting surface B were given a correspondingly uniformly curved surface, following a convex curvature.

Fig. 5 shows the link plates I and 2 of two successive links of a roller chain. The plates are connected together by a pin 3 and a bush 4. The pin 3 is fitted with nuts 5 which are secured by washers or plates 6 with raised or bent over edges.

In Fig. 'l the inner generatrix of the bush 4 is for the sake of clearer illustration indicated with a very exaggerated curvature, whereas the invention is really concerned with only very slight deviations from the cylindrical form. In order to vrender the manufacture as simple as possible. the inner surface of the bush is composed of two conical surfaces 8 which are united to the same cylindrical surface 9.

In Figs. 5 and 6 a longitudinal bore III is shown in the pin 3, and transverse bore holes II are provided. Rings I2 prevent the outflow of lubricating oil. On both sides of the pin l and bush .4 there are small grooves I3 and I4 acting as lubricating passages.

The chain is carried by a chain wheel I5 opposite the spaces between the teeth of which are arranged a series of injection nozzles 4I8 which in the example illustrated are carried by a disc I1 rotating with the chain wheel I5. The lubricating oil is supplied through passages I8 from the lubricating oil system. The device operates in such a manner that the bush 4 rests under load on the chain link against the pin 3. 'I'he tension transmitted from the plates I is consequently distributed owing to the conical surfaces 8 approximately uniformly over the whole bearing surface between the bush and the pin. As soon as there is no load on the chain link, e. g. because it passes over on to the slack side of the chain, the bush again straightens out and thuspromotes the oil circulation. So long as the chain link is on the chain wheel, it receives adequate supply of lubricating oil from the injection nozzle i8. the oil being retained by the rings I2 and forced out by the centrifugal action to the bearing surface between the bush and the pin through the bore holes II and grooves I3, I4. A Instead of constructing the bush i 4 according to Fig. 7, .the outer surfaceof the pin could be The invention can also be applied 4to, such double chains where each link consists oi' two juxtaposed links as that according to Fig. 5, the pin passing'through both bushes and the two adjacent link plates being united in a single heavier s' central link plate. Thus. the pin may be considered as a beam held in the middle and with a simple support at each end, so that the elastic line or rod line will be different from that for a normal chain as in the chain according to Fig. 5. The elastic line can nevertheless be calculated and the depending surfaces between the bushes and the pin can be constructed according thereto.

Fig. 8 shows a construction in which theinner surface of theI bush 4 is cylindrical while the l5 outer surface of the pin is composed of two inclined or conical surfaces 8', the medial portionl 9 of the pin being of cylindrical form.

According to Fig. 8, the pin 8 is cylindrical while the inner surface of the bush 4 has the shape 20 of a surface of revolution, the generatrix of which is a convex curve.

According` to the construction shown in Fig. l0, both of the cooperating surfaces of the pin 8 and the bush 4 are surfaces of revolution, the 25 generatrixes of which are both convex curves.

I claim:

1. A chain composed of apertured links' arranged in pairs, pins and bushes connecting said links, the links of one pair .receiving the ends of 30 one of said pins in the apertures thereofand the links of an adjacent pair receiving the opposite ends of vone of said bushes in the apertures thereof at least one of the cooperating surfaces of the pin and bush having an uncylindrical shape whereby 35 said surfaces when not under load, do not make contact at the ends of the bush but only over a portion intermediate the ends, said shape being further so proportioned to the elastic deformation involved by the stresses occurring by normal load on the chain, that substantially complete contact over the full length of the pin and bush occurs when the chain is under load, thus producing a substantially uniform distribution of the surface pressure between the bush and the pin. i

2. A chain composed of apertured links arranged in pairs. pins and bushes connecting said links, the links of one pair receiving the ends of one of said pins in the apertures thereof and the links of an adjacent pair receiving the opposite ends of one of said bushes in the apertures thereof at least one of the cooperating surfaces of the pin and bush having the shape of a surface of revolution, the generatrix of which constitutes a convex curve substantially corresponding to the elastic deformation which is involved when the pin and bush are subjected to the stresses occurring under normal load on the chain.

3. A chain composed of apertured links ar- 60 ranged in pairs, pins and bushes connecting said links, the links of one pair receiving the ends of one of said pins in the apertures thereof and the links of an adjacent pair receiving the opposite ends of one of said bushes in the apertures there- 55 of, at least one of the cooperating surfaces of the pin and bush being constituted only at its middlepart by a cylindrical surface, while its ends consist of conical surfaces. the generatrixes of which form such small angles with the ams oi' the cylin- 70 drical middle part that the shape of the said surface mainly corresponds to the elastic defunl mation which is involved when the pin and bush are subjected to the stresses occurring under nora mal load on the chain, and substantially complete 75 contact is thus obtained between pin and bush when the chain. is under load.

4. A chain composed of apertured links are ranged in pairs, pins and bushes connecting said links, the links oi' one pair receiving the ends of one of said pins in the apertures thereof and the links oi an adjacent pair receivingthe opposite ends of one of said bushes in the apertures thereof, the ends of at least one of the cooperatf.

ing surfaces of the pin and the bush consisting of surfaces constituted by portions of cylindrical surfaces, the axes of which are slightly inclined to one another and tothe central axis of the pin, said portions oi' cylindricalsurfaces being joined 'toone another by substantially at surfaces.

5. A chain composed of apertured links ar-` ranged in pairs, pins and bushes connecting said pins, the links of one pair receiving the .opposite ends of oney of said pins in the apertures thereof and the links of an adjacent pair receiving the opposite ends of one of saidbushes in the faper tures thereof, the pins being cylindrical, each bush having an internal bearing surface of uncylindrical shape corresponding tothe shape links, the links of one pair receiving the ends of v10 one of said pins in the apertures thereof and the links of an adjacent pair receiving the opposite ends of one of said bushes in the apertures thereof, the bushes being cylindrically bored, each pin having an uncyiindrical bearing surface, the 15 shape oi said surface being proportioned after the elastic deformation involved when the pin is subjectedto the stresses occurring under normal load on the chain, so that during normal working of the chain the pin and the bush will bear 20 substantially completely against each other, over the whole lengthl o f the pin and bush.

VIGGo A. mm. 

